HENRICO, Va. (Sept. 9, 2024) – Boater Keith Estes of Spring Grove, Virginia, caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 30 pounds, 1 ounce, to win the MLF Bass Fishing League (BFL) Super Tournament on the James River , which concluded Sunday. The tournament was the fifth and final event of the season for the BFL Shenandoah Division. Estes earned $6,066 for his victory.
“I was kind of running the outgoing tide as much as I could,” Estes said. “You couldn’t do that all day because eventually you’d ‘run out of tide’ (the tide would bottom out) after a while. I was covering as much water as possible and throwing moving baits. The fish were a little bit finicky because we’ve had some northeast winds and that kind of backed the water up a bit. I just had to keep getting reaction bites. That’s what my bigger fish came on.”
Estes started both days making a 45-mile run to the Chickahominy. The tide bottomed out at about 10:30 in that area on day one, and 45 minutes later on day two. He was able to fish the last two hours of outgoing tide around the Chickahominy, then worked his way back upstream to target waters where the tide was still falling.
In addition to the tides, he looked for high-percentage targets where he could avoid getting gunked up with annoying grass clumps.
“I grew up here, so I just know a lot of areas,” Estes said. “It kind of had to be hard cover, and this time of year the grass that’s in the river breaks up. I had to find hard cover that was clean.”
It was an intense two days of fishing for Estes. He pushed hard all day long, running and gunning to make the most of every last minute of outgoing tide.
One of his key fish during the tournament was a 5 1/2-pounder that came out of a tree. During practice for a previous BFL event, he caught what he believes is the same fish out of the same tree. It had a healed-over scar in the mouth and a distinct shape that makes him confident it was the same fish. That bass anchored a big 16-pound, 11-ounce limit on day one that set Estes on the trajectory to win the tournament.
Estes’ winning lures included a vibrating jig, a shallow-running crankbait and some soft plastics, but the jig and crankbait produced all of his key fish.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Keith Estes, Spring Grove, Va., 10 bass, 30-1, $6,066
2nd: Billy Shelton III, La Crosse, Va., 10 bass, 30-0, $3,333
3rd: Ben Dalton, Keeling, Va., 10 bass, 27-14, $2,024
4th: Christopher Wingfield, Richmond, Va., 10 bass, 27-14, $1,415
5th: James Cassaday, Wirtz, Va., 10 bass, 27-0, $1,213
6th: Tommy Little, Chester, Va., 10 bass, 25-15, $1,612 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
7th: Rodney French, Virginia Beach, Va., 10 bass, 25-8, $1,011
8th: Chris Brummett, Lynch Station, Va., 10 bass, 25-7, $1,035
9th: Powell Kemp, Scotland Neck, N.C., 10 bass, 25-7, $809
10th: Chris Moore, Mechanicsville, Va., 10 bass, 25-5, $1,540
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Chris Moore of Mechanicsville, Virginia, caught a bass that weighed 6 pounds, 4 ounces, and earned the Big Bass Boater award of $832. Dustin Wilhelm of Buena Vista, Virginia, won the co-angler division and $3,033 Sunday, after bringing a two-day total of 10 bass to the scale that weighed 24 pounds, 5 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers finished:
1st: Dustin Wilhelm, Buena Vista, Va., 10 bass, 24-5, $3,033
2nd: David Deciucis, Chester, Va., 10 bass, 24-3, $1,517
3rd: Randall Given, Laurel, Del., 10 bass, 19-13, $1,010
4th: Chad Boggs, Prince Frederick, Md., 10 bass, 19-12, $708
5th: David Williams, Fredericksburg, Va., 10 bass, 19-7, $857
6th: Lenny Baird, Stafford, Va., nine bass, 19-6, $556
7th: Pat Kendrick, Bumpass, Va., nine bass, 19-5, $506
8th: Rickey Wood, Smithfield, Va., nine bass, 17-7, $455
9th: Nathan Sullivan, Fredericksburg, Va., eight bass, 17-4, $404
10th: Robert Wedding, Welcome, Md., nine bass, 16-14, $354
Bobby Overby of Virgilina, Virginia, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $416, catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 15 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.
At the conclusion of the event, Chris Brummett of Lynch Station, Virginia, was crowned the Fishing Clash Shenandoah Division Angler of the Year (AOY) with 1,348 points and earned the $1,000 payout, while David Williams of Fredericksburg, Virginia, won the Fishing Clash Shenandoah Division Co-Angler of the Year race and the $500 prize with 1,283 points.
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